Hey everyone! With some of you back to school and me going back very shortly, I thought I'd share few tips for back to school that I use to get my room ready. In case you don't know this tip, these facial scrubbers from the Dollar Tree work great as dry erasers! They come in a few other colors too, but I always go for the blue and green. I don't sew, so instead I hot glue things together. Easy and takes the stress away from me! I love laminating things so that when I write on them with sharpie, I can reuse them by writing over them with dry erase markers. I'm using these cut outs as la ..read more

I've been doing a little bit of reading this week on my vacation. It's called Kids Deserve It! by Todd Nesloney and Adam Welcome. They have talked a lot in the book about making that connection to students and building a positive relationship with students and parents. This is not anything new to me as an educator, but sometimes we all need a little reminding of how important the little things are in building successful relationships with students and parents. Those tough students can be the hardest ones to reach and sometimes all it takes is someone to believe in them and find the positive i ..read more

Follow my blog with Bloglovin    My Classroom Desk {2017 Summer Fun Rerun!}  Organization is the difference between a good teacher and a great teacher! It is the difference between a great teacher and an excellent teacher because you are not wasting your time & energy looking for things! I leave my desk each day ready for a sub. My husband works midnights and is home during the day, if my 15 y/o son or my 82 y/o Dad is sick, my hubby can be home with them, However, I remember what it was like when one of my children got sick unexpectedly in the middle of the night. I was d ..read more

Hey everyone! This year I'm fortunate enough to have 1:1 Chromebooks in my classroom. The second week of school they were all ready to go and I jumped into Google Classroom, something I dabbled with last year. It has completely changed my teaching and my classroom. I set up a main Google Classroom (I'll call it GC from here on out) for my class. I post assignments in there for writing, science, and social studies. I've also posted announcements or links I want students to go to. I used to make a KWL chart, but now they do that on GC. Then I realized I could change my reading time by also se ..read more

So Many Uses For Paint Card Samples! Hello everyone, I'm Fern from Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas. Today I wanted to share some of my favorite uses for paint swatches, paint sample cards, paint chip cards, paint color cards.... Whatever you call them, I ♥love them. I am a "cheapie" by nature and these cards call to me, I can seriously hear them saying "Fern, Fern, Fern..." when the hubby and I go to Home Depot. We enter and he goes one way and I turn into the paint department. SIDE NOTE: I am a big believer in asking for them and not just opening your purse up and knocking over the entire di ..read more

Making Mini-Books Last Longer for Mini-Fingers! Hello everyone, I'm Fern from Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas. While you're prepping for back to school I would love to share one of my favorite tips. Once you invest in the paper and ink for printing mini-books and mini-readers, duct tape helps to make them last longer. I like to use duck tape as a  side binder OVER the staples. Four Reasons: 1. It keeps the book together longer. 2. The BACK page is not as quick to rip off. 3. Little people don't start crying when little fingers get snagged on the back part of the staple! Oh.the.Drama! 4. Te ..read more

Hey everyone! I'm sure most of you have seen the Target self-adhesive labels. I couldn't get any (boo!), but I found some on Amazon that fit business card size labels or cards. I know it's not the same as Target, not the same price etc, but I am really excited to use them. This is what the pack looks like.  Here are some of my labels. These will be labels on the students' book boxes. I'm making a second set to go on their mailboxes. This is the first year I'm using numbers instead of names and I think it'll save me lots of time and frustration on things.  I wa ..read more

Hi friends!  It's Amanda here from Teaching Maddeness.  I wanted to share a couple of quick and easy back-to-school teammate gift ideas with you. Everyone needs a little pick me up at back-to-school time, but especially TEACHERS, right?  Go ahead and prep now to be able to give your colleagues a little love on those first few exhausting days.  Who doesn't love a little nail polish?!   Tie the bottle together with a nail file and you have a perfect little treat.  You can grab this freebie gift tag HERE. Perhaps you have male co-workers who actually may not ..read more

FREE Lunch Box Love Notes! While you're planning and getting ready for back to school, here's one of my favorite freebies for you. Lunch Box Love Notes. For Teacher-Moms, as tired as we are once August and September hits, we don't want to short change our own children. I remember I really wanted my children to have a good day at school, listen to the teacher. learn a lot and make new friends. But mornings for Teacher-Moms are not like something out of the Full House TV show....many a morning at my house SOMEONE crying over SOMETHING because they weren't the center of attention at that give ..read more

Reading is crucial, but more importantly it's FUN! Whether you're a teacher looking for a fun, 100th day reading incentive or a parent  looking for a fun, summer reading incentive, these bookmarks could do the trick! They come in both color and black/white versions. Once printed, the kids can use the bookmark to keep track of how many books  they've read.  Every time they read five books, they will color a star.  After all  the stars are colored, they will have read 100 books! You can snag the bookmarks HERE or by clicking any of the pics above.  :) I hop ..read more